MEMOIKS OF RACHEL. 191

afflicted all artists. You have maintained the Theatre de la
Re'publique in a more prosperous state than any other has
attained.

" We are proud to see in this, dear camarade, not so much
the accomplishment of a duty as a proof of real sisterly friend-
ship. Accept in return the unanimous thanks of your friends
and brothers. They hope this letter, signed by them all, will
remain to you one of the most precious monuments of your
dramatic career; for if it is noble and praiseworthy to obtain
triumphs as brilliant as yours, it is no less flattering to have
deserved the affection and gratitude of all one's comrades.

"The artists' societaires of Theatre de la Kepublique."
Here followed all the signatures-

Alas! this amity and concord was to be of short duration:
the chcre camarade was soon to do battle as steadily against
these dearly-beloved brothers and sisters as ever she had for
them; to renounce the demigods of her youth, to turn her
back on the temple, to abjure even the "Marseillaise."

But we will not anticipate those sad times; the present
were quite bad enough. Even Mademoiselle Rachel and the
"Marseillaise" were unable to make head long against the
adverse wind then blowing. If the house was empty on free
nights with extra performances, what could be expected on
ordinary occasions when admittance was to be paid. The
Grand Opera itself was even less attended than the theatres.
Forsaken by the managers, Mirecourt and A. Adam, when it
took the name of Theatre de la Nation, it had fonned itself
into a company in imitation of the Theatre Frances; bjd,
Botwithstandmg this compliment to the nation, the latier-^at
least that portion of it that inhabited Paris—had its time too
much taken up every night by the seventy-four political dubs
it attended to hare any to spare "for theatricals. The Opera
had less chance than the draaaa, lyrical master^Heces offering
no food to the political passiori^W *i*e crowd.

On the 16th of May, Monsieur Charles de Matharel, the
editor of " Le Siede," who saw things with less enthusiastic
eyes than M Hippolyte Lucas, expressed himself as follows:

" "We have said, and all our confreres with us, that it wasumber of the officers of